Shining at a distance of 60 million light years, the elliptical galaxy NGC 1344 is the main focus of this deep telescopic image taken from Chile. Located in the constellation Fornax, its bright core is easily observable in amateur telescopes but the many ripple like shells can only be seen in long exposure astrophotography.

NGC 1344 was one of the first shell elliptical galaxies to be identified in the 1980’s by the astronomers David Malin and David Carter. Their photographic plates plus the combination of the at the time revolutionary process of ‘photographic amplification‘ uncovered a multitude of outer tidal shells for the first time!

In addition to the many internal shells visible around the core, a faint tidal arc can be seen above and to the right. In the opposite direction, a faint counter tidal arc can be glimpsed below and to the left of the core. Viewing the full resolution image opens up a cosmic web of dozens of background galaxies that are likely to be located billions of light years away! Providing a dash of colour to the otherwise monochrome proceedings are bright nearby stars (on a cosmic scale) situated in the Milky Way, their diffraction spikes an artifact of the telescope equipment.

With an almost lifelong obsession with the universe, his interests include deep sky objects, particularly planetary nebulae, galaxies and exotic stellar ejecta. A never ending curiosity compels him to continue to explore the vast realm of obscure deep sky objects. Contact Sakib.